The Way People Run: Stories

Christopher Tilghman is often mentioned in the same breath as John Cheever or William Maxwell--American masters who have mapped the difficult terrain of domestic life. Pretty exalted company, but Tilghman more than holds his own in the novel Mason's Retreat and the short-story collection In a Father's Place. The Way People Run is yet another example of both his skill as a stylist and his insight into the workings of everyday life. In "Something Important" Peter Randall is lured by his older brother Mitch to a family cottage in the Chesapeake country. The two men haven't seen each other in several years and their relationship has never been close. Yet when, in the course of the two days they spend together, Peter discovers that his brother knows something that he doesn't about his own marriage, it is Mitch who offers comfort:

Peter felt that hand and heard these words, and both of them helped. This boat he sat on, it was Mitch's idea of a gift, not coming empty-handed to the hospital room, no need to sit around getting maudlin for Christ's sake. Peter thumped on the desk and looked up at Mitch. "Thanks for this," he said.

"Room for Mistakes" follows Hal from his failing bank job in Boston back to the family ranch in Montana after the death of his mother whom he had loved "as his mother had loved him, from a distance." What starts out as a temporary pilgrimage home soon becomes a tangle of emotions and ghosts as Hal must confront his feelings about the ranch, his long-dead father, and the surprising revelations of his mother's will. Tilghman reveals a complicated subtext of jealousy, love, resentment, and hope through the mix of characters he introduces: Hal and his city-wife, Marcie; his step-father, Roy, who was once his mother's ranch hand; and Shannon, the housekeeper.

Tilghman has a knack for writing articulately about inarticulate people. In every story, actions speak louder than words, and though there's plenty of dialogue, most of Tilghman's meaning can be found in the accretion of telling details and in the behavior of his characters toward each other. These are the best kind of short stories--the ones you can read more than once and still find something new every time. --Alix Wilber